Coele-Syria

Coele-Syria was a region of Syria in classical antiquity. In 332 BC, it became a province of Macedon after Alexander the Great conquered the region from the Persians, but, after his death in 323 BC, the Wars of the Diadochi began as his generals competed for control of various regions of his empire. Two of these successor states, Ptolemaic Egypt and Seleucid Syria, fought for control of the region in the Syrian Wars of 274-168 BC, and, following the Battle of Panium in 200 BC, the region fell under Seleucid control. In 165 BC, the Maccabean Revolt broke out against Seleucid rule in Judea, leading to the establisment of the independent Hasmonean dynasty in 140 BC. Parthian invasions reduced the size of the Seleucid realm to little more than just Antioch and some Syrian cities by 100 BC, and, in 83 BC, King Tigranes the Great of Armenia virtually ended the Seleucid empire by making himself ruler of Syria. Following the defeat of Tigranes by the Roman Republic in 69 BC, Antiochus XIII became the ruler of a rump Seleucid kingdom, but he engaged in a civil war with rival claimant Philip II Philoromaeus, and, in 63 BC, the Roman general Pompey did away with the Seleucid princes and created the province of Roman Syria. From 200 to 314 AD, "Syria-Coele" was a province of the Roman Empire with Antioch serving as its capital, and it was garrisoned by two Roman Army legions. In 314 AD, it was annexed into the Diocese of the East.